Tell me if I am an idiot!

I want to be able to record and mess around with my stuff on my computer. If I buy, for example, a Tascam Porta Two HS MiniStudio, can I plug my bass into my amp (its an old acoustic 370 amp head), may amp into the Tascam, and the Tascam into my computer, say through a program like Cool Edit? Is there something that I'm missing? Can the Tascam do that? It appears to essentially a mixer with a built in tape deck, and I've heard that you can do bassicly do that setup with a mixer.. Or is there something wrong with doing it with my amp? Do I need a preamp? I am so lost.. Any suggestions? Bassicly this is all just for my amusment, so I just need a way to get my bass into my computer.. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

you can plug the bass directly into the tascam, but welcome to the world of crappy sound. You may want to invest in a good pre-amp. Then you could go direct to the tascam. If your living situation allows you could mic the Acoustic. Thing is, those little porta studios don't have good mic preamps inside. Good luck.

edit: JMX is very right, NEVER go speaker out to anything but a speaker.

I figured as much. So if I were to go out and get a Sadowsky outboard preamp or something like that, I could plug my bass into that, and my that into my computer with out problems?

EDIT: I just thought of something. Would a line out be like a headphone jack? Beause I've got a little crate 30watt (I think) practice amp.. could I run through that, and into my soundcard without damage? Or would the sound just absolutely suck?

When you say that the Tascam has bad mic preamps does that mean that even if I mic my amp, its going to sound bad?

Anyone ever heard of a Yamaha MT120S? looks quite similar to the Tascam.. Just wondering which might be better.

Ok, how about if I do it this way. If I went out and bought a Sadowsky headphone preamp (As seen here) I could plug my bass into that, and connect a line out from that into my line in on my soundcare without blowing up my computer? Would the pedal preamp/DI be better (on that same page)? I don't really have the ability to mic my amp so I need to go direct. Would my idea of the little crate practice amp work (headphone out to the line in on my soundcard) or would that sound really crappy too? Bassicly, I am doing this to get some of my music on my computer, I want it to sound good, but I don't want to spend much $$..

Originally posted by HWK2 I figured as much. So if I were to go out and get a Sadowsky outboard preamp or something like that, I could plug my bass into that, and my that into my computer with out problems?

EDIT: I just thought of something. Would a line out be like a headphone jack? Beause I've got a little crate 30watt (I think) practice amp.. could I run through that, and into my soundcard without damage? Or would the sound just absolutely suck?

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A headphone jack is basically a speaker out too.
Headphones ARE small speakers, right?
It's power is probably too small to hurt anything, but it may not sound as good as a line out (impedance mismatch).
You can try it (at own risk of course). I've done it before, so it can work.